When Ron Warman, owner of Vancouver-based Ron's Automotive, started the business in 1978, it consisted of a mobile service truck.
"It worked out fine until I was spending too much time driving around and not enough time working on cars," he said.
Today, Ron's Automotive has three shops – in Hazel Dell, Cascade Park and Orchards – 35 employees and 45 service bays.
Steadily expanding the business in 30 years brought plenty of challenges, but many opportunities for learning.
"There is a total different dynamic having two stores instead of one," he said. "You have to be very dependent on people and really be able to turn them loose."
The Orchards shop, which Warman opened in 2004, now serves as the business headquarters.
"When you get close to 50, you don't want to look back and say ‘What would have happened if I'd opened that third store?' " he said. "I wanted to do it, and 2004 was one of our biggest years."
Business is OK in Orchards, Warman said, but the business has had to scale back in the recession, cutting three or four positions from each shop. Sales are down, but with the adjustment in staff, the company is not losing money – not a bad place to be right now, he said.
Warman declined
to share further financial information.
He attributes the business' consistent growth to being unwilling to compromise quality just to increase sales.
"We back our service for five years and 50,000 miles, so we can't start using substandard parts because we can't warranty them," Warman said. "In the end, if the job isn't done right, customers are going to remember that they had to bring it back, not the cheap price."
In April, Ron's Automotive picked up its sixth AAA Washington Top Shop Award, for getting 100 percent customer satisfaction ratings and Warman said the future is bright.
In the future, he hopes to grow the collision shop in the Hazel Dell location and have a presence in Salmon Creek.
Megan Patrick-Vaughn can be reached at mpatrick@vbjusa.com.
